Cardiff: General Airport Discussion & Updates

[mathers_wales_uk]

Usually team fly in using Jet2 via Cardiff however depends on where they are staying.

Scots haven’t flown down in droves they usually arrive by bus as lot of supporters either already live in Wales or do an exchange with South Wales Rugby Clubs with some after years of friendship even staying in each others houses.

As a child I would remember on a Friday afternoon sound of a bagpipe as the piper would walk in front of the bus two streets away from the Rugby Club in Treherbert. On Sunday you would see loc females crying as the Scott’s head away after a fun weekend. 😂

 

[Jerry]

They came in from ALC with FR.

Ah a bit of warm weather training to prepare for Wales in February!

 

[Red Flyer]

They’re flying back to EDI from BRS on Monday with EZY.

 

[geoff]

Nice to see Ascend Airways, ( part of Synergy Aviation),using their newly acquired 737 for training at CWL with 3 visits today. Info from SWAG site.

 

[geoff]

Wales Business Live, and Wales on line, are carrying reports on the financial position at CWL, and the possible return of Qatar Airways. The airport reduced its losses by 2.1 million last year, Spencer Birns is optimistic for the future and is talking to Ryanair for extra services next winter, in addition to ongoing talks with Qatar Airways. He said that carryings on the Edinburgh route should increase with the allocation of a larger aircraft on the route. He also stated that all the airport staff were working very hard to get back to the 1,6 million passengers by the end of 2026. He also stated he had the support of the Welsh Government and two Welsh Ministers had attended two of the meetings he had held with some airlines.

 

[Samdorob]

Wales Business Live, and Wales on line, are carrying reports on the financial position at CWL, and the possible return of Qatar Airways. The airport reduced its losses by 2.1 million last year, Spencer Birns is optimistic for the future and is talking to Ryanair for extra services next winter, in addition to ongoing talks with Qatar Airways. He said that carryings on the Edinburgh route should increase with the allocation of a larger aircraft on the route. He also stated that all the airport staff were working very hard to get back to the 1,6 million passengers by the end of 2026. He also stated he had the support of the Welsh Government and two Welsh Ministers had attended two of the meetings he had held with some airlines.

I’m sceptical myself if Qatar will return. Time will tell with that one! On the other hand I’m really hoping for something from Vueling. PMI or BCN come to mind!

 

[Jerry]

"the airport (which directly employs around 300), supports 2,400 jobs, 40 companies located on its campus, including British Airways’ maintenance repair and overhaul facility that employs 700, further 1,600 are supported around the St Athan airfield"

Cardiff Airport on a Qatar Airways return, passenger growth and financial health

The airport's chief executive Spencer Birns said the target of getting back to its pre-Covid annual passenger number of 1.6 million still stands

www.business-live.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

Wales Business Live, and Wales on line, are carrying reports on the financial position at CWL, and the possible return of Qatar Airways. The airport reduced its losses by 2.1 million last year, Spencer Birns is optimistic for the future and is talking to Ryanair for extra services next winter, in addition to ongoing talks with Qatar Airways. He said that carryings on the Edinburgh route should increase with the allocation of a larger aircraft on the route. He also stated that all the airport staff were working very hard to get back to the 1,6 million passengers by the end of 2026. He also stated he had the support of the Welsh Government and two Welsh Ministers had attended two of the meetings he had held with some airlines.

I have a feeling Qatar will be a case of talking to them for quite a while yet! I'd hope that Ryanair would extend Tenerife into the winter at 2 weekly it's sorely needed. He also stated that passenger numbers were only 2% below the year before which considering the loss of Wizz isn't too bad. Getting to 1.6 million by 2026 is going to be a big challenge and would imo probably require a 4th based from TUI and at least Ryanair doubling the amount of flights it does. It was notable that Spencer mentioned about increasing capacity on routes like Faro etc as a key part of getting back to 1.6 million.

 

[geoff]

Yes he was quite open about what he wants to see at CWL, he was keen to see more planes on the PMI route, and said that demand for CWL flights was outstripping capacity. I also read today that TUI were keen to do deals with lo-cost airlines to help their expansion.

 

[Jerry]

Yes he was quite open about what he wants to see at CWL, he was keen to see more planes on the PMI route, and said that demand for CWL flights was outstripping capacity. I also read today that TUI were keen to do deals with lo-cost airlines to help their expansion.

TUI in the past have used Easyjet a lot but I suspect Easyjet holidays is reducing the options they have there. I'd hope we'd see TUI use Vueling at Cardiff more and encourage them to add more frequency.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

TUI have historically offered 6-7 flights a week to PMI during summer. If VY brought back PMI TUI could take a fair chunk of the seats and possibly reduce their own PMI offering to free up the aircraft for other routes.

 

[Jerry]

The departure times from CWL for PMI for TUI are
06.00 and 22.40 Tuesday
06.00 Thursday
06.10 Friday
06.30 Saturday
07.05 Sunday
With the exception of the night Tuesday flight they're all morning departures. Could Vueling look at Monday or Wednesday departures and maybe later on Fridays to give people more options?

 

[Samdorob]

That’s the headline the bbc go with… “Cardiff airport continues to make losses”

Cardiff Airport continuing to make losses

Government-owned airport made pre-tax loss of £4.5m in first year without Covid travel restrictions.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

That’s the headline the bbc go with… “Cardiff airport continues to make losses”

Cardiff Airport continuing to make losses

Government-owned airport made pre-tax loss of £4.5m in first year without Covid travel restrictions.

www.bbc.co.uk

I'd expect that they would say it's accurate. Technically it is. Problem is it doesn't set out the challenges the airport faces and the fact that that the loss has come down by £2 million.

 

[Jerry]

With the likelihood of a UK Labour government in the future it'll be interesting to see if the Welsh government will try and get Air Passenger Duty devolved.

 

[MJC73]

I bet no!

 

[Jerry]

‘Cardiff airport doesn’t have a USP’ says expert as losses continue at Welsh hub​

MSN

 

[MJC73]

I often look at the airports USP when thinking about flying. I once drove to Liverpool just cos I like the song Penny Lane then chose Exeter as it looks nice from the M5. Once I even chose to fly from Belfast cos I proper loves soccer*


* I didn't.

 

[Jerry]

I often look at the airports USP when thinking about flying. I once drove to Liverpool just cos I like the song Penny Lane then chose Exeter as it looks nice from the M5. Once I even chose to fly from Belfast cos I proper loves soccer*


* I didn't.

I think the challenge with Cardiff is that it's always seen that it has to have something different from Bristol if it's going to succeed.

 

[Samdorob]

I often look at the airports USP when thinking about flying. I once drove to Liverpool just cos I like the song Penny Lane then chose Exeter as it looks nice from the M5. Once I even chose to fly from Belfast cos I proper loves soccer*


* I didn't.

Cardiff Airports USP is that it’s the closest airport to Cardiff. It just needs to start winning back travellers who go to Bristol on the routes it has.